Thursday, July 6, 2017

Why I've Been M.I.A. Lately




It's been a couple of months since I last sat down to write a blog for the Wu's Feet Links Columns Blog. It's been three months since I last published an interview to the Wu's Feet Links Interviews Blog. I've been popping into the Wu's Feet Links Forum sparingly as well. A few of my posts there have mentioned that I've been dealing with something and that I would with all of you soon. Well, that's what I intend to do today.

This month's blog entry will have nothing to do with feet or foot fetishism. It isn't about anything sexy or teasing. This will be anything but those things. What I need to do is share something with all of you. I debated with myself for weeks whether I should bring this up, but the idea that I could possibly help someone out there was too strong. That's why this column is being written.

I want to come here to say that I'm currently dealing with a family member with a severe addiction to heroin and/or pain killers. Even though I've been out doing my photos and trying to live life, it has been a looming presence over both my and my parents' shoulders. Things have gone from bad, to worse, to rock bottom, to how in the hell is it still going on?

For a few years now we have known that my younger brother has had an addition problem. Things first came to a head when he was arrested for stealing from his job. After going to court a few times he wound up with probation and a restitution payment. For many, that probably would have been enough to say that it's time to clean up and get my life on track. Not the case here.

Time progressed after this to where my brother's girlfriend finally had enough and left him, taking their daughter with her. My brother would only see his daughter if/when he saw her at my parents' house. My parents love spending time with their granddaughter and my brother's now ex-girlfriend said she just didn't want my brother taking her without them around. In his case, I found that totally understandable. Still, this was not enough to straight himself up.

From here things really turned for the worst. My brother just wasn't finding the help he needed and reverting back to his deadly habit. At this point, my parents allowed him to move back home and try to help him in any way that they could. What would ultimately end up happening, however, was a few thousand dollars worth of their property would find their way to pawn shops, or sold to who knows who? A number of items that I owned were also included as share a storage locker with my parents and he got into it and took some of my collectibles and property.

At this point I was infuriated! Time and time again my brother would tell us how things are going great, all the while stealing from right under our noses. My mom was now a wreck and my father was at the point where he wanted him out of the house. I told them they had tried, but I agreed with my father. They had to send him out on his own. Years of support was only enabling him to continue his habits at our expense. My parents had paid to get him help, allowed him to live somewhere to get back on his feet, helped him with his bills, and so much more. The thanks they got were a bunch of things stolen from them. My father was able to find a good number of items in local pawn shops, but that meant buying back our own things. I told my father to file a police report to get them back, but my parents did not want to send him to jail. I think that is where he belonged. Still, all this didn't stop his ways. Not even after they threw him out of the house.

Finally, things looked good, in my eyes, for my parents. They were not going to have to deal with my brother being in their house stealing their property. My parents finally seemed to come to terms with him either doing what he was going to do to himself, or finding help on this own. We were freeing ourselves of this without him in their house. So we thought. 

More things turned up missing. He was allowed to stop by the house to pick up his mail, or see his daughter from time to time, as long as someone was there. Still, he was able to take things out of my parents house. It got to the point where he was no longer welcome to the house at all. This broke my mother's heart, but she knew by continuing to help, she was actually enabling him to keep up doing what he was doing. Still, not something that has been easy for her to handle.

Once again, at this point in time, my brother made a statement that he was going to find help. Sadly, I counted this as another ploy to gain trust, but for the first time my parents told him that he had to be the one to do it. I agreed. Someone in his place will only stop doing what they're doing once they decided it's time. None of us can do it for them. Right now, he is jobless, but was able to check himself into a long term facility that helps people in his situation. I hope this is the time that actually works, but at this point, we're all a little defeated and know it's out of our hands.

The above recount leaves out so many little details and issues of heartbreak and anger. I didn't want to go into any of the details here at the start, but not mentioning them didn't really portray some of the things that my parents and I have been going through with my brother. I tell you these things not to drum up sympathy for us, but to share what we went through. If you're someone who has dealt with such things, you exactly what I'm talking about. I want you to know that you're far from the only person dealing with this horrible ordeal. And if you're the person who is struggling with the habit, or any habit for that matter, know that you have to be the one to help yourself. You're only hurting yourself and your family members. Things can get better, but they sure can get worse too!

I thank all of you for giving me the ability to share this with all of you. If even one person gets comfort, or hopefully finds inspiration to help themselves out, then I will be happy that I made this choice to share my situation.

Monday, May 8, 2017

Your Suggestions/Help Needed

Karolinka is a sweetheart and quite simply, a master at the art of footjobs.



So here I am in year three of writing columns and conduction interviews for the Wu's Feet Links Columns Blog and the Wu's Feet Links Interview Blog. For the first two years things were smooth sailing when it came to coming up with topics or finding people to interview. Then it seems like I hit a wall. This wall is one I feel like I'm still climbing.

As you are aware by the time stamps on both blog sites, sometimes the columns and interviews just don't happen on a monthly basis anymore. At times, this is due to my own busy schedule. Work has been asking more of me and I've also been trying to make some major changes to my own website, Soles of Silk. And sadly, as of late, I've had some unfortunate family issues that I've been dealing with. That being said, I've still managed to contact people in the background about taking part in both the columns and interviews. Things just haven't always turned out as well as I had hoped.

Columns Blog
Coming up with topics for this particular blog site has been one that isn't always easy. I feel like I started out very strong with topics that involved lots of my peers in the foot fetish community. People seemed eager to help and I had a lot of fun writing up those pieces.

As of late, however, I've had trouble contacting people for inclusion in some ideas I have. There are a few on the back burner that I want to get to, but don't want to rush. Karolinka, for example, who you see at the top of this column, has agreed to help me out with a piece I want to do on footjobs. She was the October 2015 Interview and we've talked from time to time about getting together for some future items here on the columns blog. Karolinka was also the March 2017 Feature Model on Wu's Feet Links, so be sure to check that out.

I'm also thinking about talking with Roxie Rae from The Foot Fantasy, about a topic to do with tease and denial (T&D) and jerk off instruction (JOI). She too, has been very helpful in the past. Roxie was the August 2014 Interview on the Interviews Blog. From there, she took part in one of my early columns, "One For the Ages, Part 1: Teens to Twenties" and has never hesitated to help out whenever I've come calling. She has allow me to use her photos to help illustrate any of my columns topics numerous times. She also came through with a bunch of photos for the Wu's Feet Links Feature Model section, when she was featured in June 2016 feature, "Pretty Pool Peds."

That's only two topics, however. What kind of things would you like to read about? I can't promise that I'd be up for any and all topics, but I'm looking for advice here. I still am also up for entertaining the idea of guest columnist, but all the past offers went as far as a, "Hey, I'll do it" offer and then nothing ever came about.

It's inevitable that I will sometimes do topics, like this one, that just talk about the happenings of Wu's Feet Links, these blog sites, or whatever is on my mind. Columns, by nature, aren't meant to be articles, per se. I just like adding in some of those elements whenever I can.



The Footosopher asked me about my interest in interviewing Elettra.

Interviews Blog
This blog is where some of my major issues come from. Back in 2014, I was sending out interviews for the Interviews Blog and getting them returned to me much sooner than I expected. I built up a backlog of interviews that were ready to be published. For months I had the interviews saved to the blog in draft form, waiting for the date they'd go live. Then... people began to flake.

At first, it was just one. Then it became two. At this point in time, I have taken the time to write out close to a dozen interviews that people told me they were up for doing. That's an entire year's worth of interviews! Most of these are foot models, but a couple were also webmasters. I've given up on many of these people getting back to me, but I'm still hopeful on the last two I sent out. Honestly, however, these two models have not answered a single message I've sent them about the interview over the last couple of months, so I probably shouldn't even be hopeful.

I don't expect people to get to the interviews as soon as I send them their way. I tell them to take their time and say what they want to say. It's only when time begins to pass and I don't hear from them anymore that I get annoyed. I'd rather someone just tell me they're not interested, or don't have the time. I won't be insulted and I'll look around elsewhere. It's when I take the time to write up questions and send them off, and then seemingly get ignored - that's when I get pissed. I just don't fire off these questions in 10 minutes. I take time to go onto my interviewee's site(s), buy memberships and/or clips to see their content, and try to gear my questions to the particular person. If the person has no intent of following through, I'd rather focus my efforts (and money) on those who will.

Where this further hinders my efforts is when I have someone coming to me about being interviewed, or has a model who'd like to be. This was the case with a recent conversation between the Feetosopher, the webmaster of Barefoot Nudity and Barefoot Urban Girls. He asked if I'd like to interview two of his models, Swains and Elettra (above). Of course, I was very interested and still am. Sadly, however, I've had barely any time to get either interview worked on, much less completed. With all the personal items going on that I mentioned at the start of this blog, and the time I've had wasted by others, I have fallen behind. I, however, was honest with him about me not being sure when I could get them over to him due to these reasons. I can't be a hypocrite, after all.

The Feetosopher has been one of the people I've come to trust and lean on whenever I need help with anything on Wu's. He helped me get an interview out to Red-X, one of my favorite models of his, in August 2015. Then in March 2016, he, himself, was the focus of an interview. He's also submitted a few photo sets for the features section, including the November 2016 feature with Swains, "Swains, the Classy Barefooter," and the April 2015 feature with Red-X, "The Year-Round Barefooter."

I will work on these interviews for Swains and Elettra and hope he can find time to pass them onto his models. He was hoping for me to have Swains done several weeks ago because he had planned on meeting up with her. Sadly, I was not able to come through due to those reasons above. Still, I fully expect that both ladies will be the focus on future interviews.

Now that I'm done my rant, I want to say that the Interviews Blog gets its fair share of views - some in the tens of thousands. I've had interviewees contact me after their interviews were published to tell me the feedback was great. It's exposed them to potential new fans and customers. Many are glad I asked them to do it. I, of course, thank them for taking their time to help me keep Wu's Feet Links going in whatever capacity I can.

All this being said, if you think you know of anyone that hasn't already been interviewed that you'd like to see, please, by all means, let me know. Keep in mind, however, if you send me a listing of premier adult actresses, it's probably not likely that they're going to do it. Where I've had luck thus far was asking webmasters and foot models who are involved with running their own sites/stores. These foot models who run their own sites/stores see the value an interview could bring, like Roxie Rae, for example.

Where I seem to strike out, sadly, is with foot models who bounce from site to site, model their feet, and move on to another site. I don't want to stereotype every model that does this because that would be unfair. With my experiences, however, these models appear happy with their income and it seems like they feel no need to promote themselves further. So, if you send me a list of names, keep all these things in mind.

Before I close this out, my fellow webmasters and foot models, if you, yourself, or one of your friends in the foot fetish community, would like to be featured as an interview, by all means, please contact me. I'm always looking to make some new friends in the community, so even if we've never talked, reach out to me!